MALAWI: Bishop urges Catholic Media to Champion Faith, Development

KARONGA AUGUST 4, 2017 (CISA) – of Karonga Diocese has urged Catholic media houses to be a source of hope by highlighting the country’s development agenda and promote programmes on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“Let us offer the message of faith for the glory of God and the development of this nation. We are the ones to champion this, and this can be done based on the way we do things. Let’s do things in a coordinated manner and be innovative,” said Bishop Mtumbuka, reported Catholic Radio.

While presiding over the World Communications Day Mass, the bishop said the Catholic Church is grateful to God for the various tools of communication being used to spread the Gospel and challenged Catholic media to be more professional in the execution of their functions.

“I would like to challenge our media houses and those working in these (media) houses to be more professional. We thank God for the gift of all communication tools. However, we are challenging ourselves to use them effectively. We can do much better than what we are doing with our television stations, radio stations and newspapers,” said Bishop Mtumbuka.

At the same occasion, Episcopal Conference of Malawi Bishop-Chair for Social Communications and Research, George Tambala spoke on the message of Pope Francis’ for the Church’s 51st World Communications Day which calls for a culture of constructive information at the service of truth.

“Pope Francis challenges us all to break the various circle of anxiety and stem the spiral of fear that results from a constant focus on bad news such as war, terrorism, scandals and all sorts of human failure,” said Bishop Tambala.

On its part the Government of Malawi through the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology hailed Catholic media houses and its practitioners for striving to advance evangelization and development and has since pledged its support.

Nicholas Dausi, the minister responsible, challenged Catholic media houses to be more professional and not only broadcast pessimistic news.

“We should not thrive on bad news or something that is defamatory to our colleagues. Using Church media is crucial for the evangelization drive,” said Dausi adding that the government would work hand in hand with Catholic media houses and that they would offer any support for them to grow and provide better services to the nation.

Some of Malawi’s Catholic media include the Episcopal Conference’s own Social Communications and Research Commission; Radio Maria Malawi; Radio Alinafe; Tigabane Radio; Tuntufye FM; Luntha Television, Montfort and Likuni Press.